For example, in discussing his childhood in "Southie" a poor neighborhood in Boston, Patrick MacDonald talks about the willful ignorance of the people in the neighborhood when he was a child. "They were all here now, all of my neighbors and friends who had died young from violence, drugs, and from the other deadly things we'd been taught didn't happen in Southie" (MacDonald, 1999, p.2). In other words, the

IT is commonly asserted that there are in the United States no classes, and any allusion to classes is resented. On the other hand, we constantly read and hear discussions of social topics in which the existence of social classes is assumed as a simple fact. "The poor," "the weak," "the laborers," are expressions which are used as if they had exact and well- understood definition. Karl Marx, a famous philosopher

That changes your view of yourself and also influences the way people interact with you. They want to listen to you; they like being in your company and you are invited to almost all the best parties around. It was a superb life and one that I was enjoying beyond belief. I no longer cared about the various coupons you could find in newspapers because I could afford almost

SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN THE U.S. Classism' refers to distribution of national wealth is such a manner that it benefits the highest social class, the elites, and leads to the creation of social hierarchy. "Classism is made up of falsehoods about the frugality and seriousness of the upper class and the profligacy and frivolity of the lower" (Dugger, 1998). While in the Britain and other imperial countries, social classes took birth

' Even "very bright students now come to college and even law school ill-prepared for critical thinking, rigorous reading, high-level writing, and working independently" (Goodwin 2013). In my personal experience in Guatemala, students suffer even more extreme discrimination through the public education and private education systems. Government-run schools are substandard, compared with private schools which are attended by children of the rich. The fact that so many wealthy and influential students

Therefore, other strategies such as guest talks and city council meetings, as well as church groups, must also address such differences and promote tolerance and understanding. While it is imperative that society functions without prejudice, in a smooth, diversity-promoting way, competing interests could always overthrow this delicate balance. Certain institutions must therefore conduct a never-ceasing effort to promote understanding through communication and interaction, for only in this way can